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Let Them Eat Chilean Sea Bass

It’s not easy to campaign for Governor of Montana when you haven’t lived here for 40 years.

I’d gotten a tip that Neil Livingstone had begun airing TV ads, and so I went to Youtube to see what I could find.There are no Livingstone TV ads on Youtube, but I found something much, much better. It is a professionally produced, six minute “official campaign video,” with a voice narration made to sound like it’s a reporter doing an extended news story about a day in the life of the Livingstone-Zinke campaign.

And what a peach it its.

Let’s get right to the climax of the video, and work back from there. Livingstone, at around the 3:35 mark, states emphatically that he is “a blue collar Republican” and “not a country club Republican.”

Indeed, his wardrobe bears this out. Throughout the video, he is dressed in what appear to be:

At the outset of this comedic six-minute video, the narrator tells us that we should be amazed that this video encompasses a period of time in which Livingstone made “twenty-four campaign stops in three days…a break neck pace that only an international businessman could handle.”

We are then told that the objective of a Livingstone administration will be to “rebuild Montana.” We are also informed that campaign staffers enjoy referring to Livingstone and Zinke as “the dynamic duo.” (The staffers are shown posing for a photo with the candidates. Does anyone recognize them? I would suspect not; they are likely from Washington DC.)

Livingstone is shown getting off his bus and chatting up Montana citizens and business owners. He is interviewed at intervals, and gives us his usual charismatic discussion of how the state has “too much regulation” and a “terrible business climate” and a “lack of natural resource development” (all of these aspersions being the opposite of reality)

Livingstone says he will “fix” Montana, by developing oil and gas and coal. But he also has a novel new proposal, which he unveils during a visit to a local Butte butcher. Livingstone proposes that he will “put traditional moneymakers, like beef, back on the menu.”

“Why shouldn’t Montana beef be popular in Tokyo,” he asks, “the way Chilean sea bass is in America?”

Livingstone is certainly familiar with Chilean sea bass. In his days as a high-powered lobbyist, Livingstone was known around Washington as “deep mouth,” for his love of fine dining. The daily newspaper Roll Call once reported that Livingstone had set a world record by eating at the finest restaurant in Washington a total of 88 times in a 57 day period.

Note to Neil: most Montanans have probably never eaten Chilean sea bass.

Speaking of not understanding basic concepts, most of the video is shot in Butte. I’m not sure if Livingstone understands this, but there aren’t many votes for him to find in Butte. It is a rock-hard Democratic city.

Livingstone also cautions us that beyond the failure of Montana to develop our natural resources and get rid of excessive reguations, there is a far greater threat: grizzly bears. We are shown a photo of a cattle ranch and a few bears which supposedly invaded the ranch to steal the cows’ food. And we are shown a picture of a dead wolf, shot “near a residential area,” we are told. These are the grave problems facing Montana which the statesman Neil Livingstone will address. And, of course, Livingstone says that “Washington elites” are to blame for these terrible problems.

Washington elites. Hmmm. This is a candidate who is a member of the super-elite, ultra-exclusive “Cosmos Club,” a 130-year-old-social club where Washington’s elite socialites come to play bridge and chess, drink champagne and talk politics. The club’s dress policy states that “Casual slacks, denim, beachwear, T-shirts, and athletic attire or athletic footwear are not appropriate.” However, blue collar members like Livingstone can take consolation in the fact that “The dress code for male members is relaxed from Memorial Day (last Monday in May) to Labor Day (first Monday in September) when gentlemen are not required to wear a necktie in the Club.”

Also to be seen in this world class video production is a shot of what is supposed to be the Montana Senate, presented to the viewer while the narrator is describing Ryan Zinke’s career as an ace legislator. There’s only one problem: the Senate chamber seen in the photo is not from the Montana Capitol building, but from some other state.

Nevertheless, this video has gotten an extraordinary reception by the internet viewing public. The video was posted exactly two months ago. As of last night (as you can see from my screenshot), the video had been viewed by a total of….twelve people.Tweet

Pretty clear that Livingscam and his trained seal want nothing more than to turn Montana into the Last Best Shithole!
What are these guys, nucking futz? Them days are over. Here, boys, in case you missed it. I-137. That’s all you need to know.

Now, beFORE you start on you plans, go fix the water in the Berkely Pit, clean up Zortman/Landusky, and the thousands of miles of polluted rivers, the mine cleanups from the past, etc. Then, we’ll talk. But as it stands now, you two dudes are pathetic losers who don’t have a clue.

Yep, read that last night, and thought! looks like everyone is gonna start locking things up at night there from now on. Even our town has had to up tick our police force.

Almost double more break ins and suspicious people reports. As people move across the state to the east side Thanks GOP! If we were mining green energy, we would be looking for college grads, to fill the jobs, not riffraff from Colorado who kill teachers!

Livingstone’s union membership is in the Screen Actors Guild, according to a profile in the Washington Post. His experience as a “laborer” was working as a consultant on the TV show “The Equalizer.” Bahahahaha!!!!!!!

My bullshit meter went OFF the freakin’ charts when Livingscam said that there are OVER 200 enviro groups in Montana! SO, I would like a dude from their campaign to list say maybe FIFTY! Or forty! Or thirty! Or maybe just ten! Must’a had a blue light special in the bullshit dept. of Neil’s own private CIA! SERIOUS losers!

Chilean Sea Bass! Like many exotic sounding names, this one was created by the PR folks for the Patagonian Toothfish, to help sucker those label conscious Americans into paying extra for the rights to eat a fish that isn’t even a bass. Like Livingston, it’s all in the labeling. With the way he’s running his campaign, maybe it should be Neil Living-Stoned.

You know to be 100% honest, I have never in my life had Chilean Sea Bass, yet I’ve had alot of beef. Wow I don’t even know where I would go looking for any Chilean Sea Bass, cause the resturants and grocery stores around here would laugh at you if you asked for it, yet I could find you a beef steak and I could bbq it and it would knock your socks off.

Ok now I watched the video and I dont know where to begin here. Ok first off Montana ranchers are getting some of the best prices ever in history for beef, trust me cattle prices are at all time highs, and I dont care who is governor of Montana that person has no control over commodity prices, be it cattle, grain (which I will admit grain is down in the toilet btw) precious metals, oil, coal, natrual gas, etc. And Montana still has the same problem that it had eight years ago when Brian Schwietzer was elected to office, we are still producing and sending out raw natural resources instead of finished products, by and large. So hence we do not have value added, we just sell raw resources. Now I will say this Brian Schweitzer has tried many things to change this but by and large it has not changed much. Ok second thing, I live out in Eastern Montana, and we are seeing impacts from oil and gas development, when Judy Martz was governor for example or heck I’ll be nice and use Marc Ratco, oil and gas development was in the toilet, alot of that was cause of prices, geology, and the fact that technology had not been invented yet, but today we either have or had rigs in all the Eastern counties in the last year. Also you should note that coal production also rose under Governor Schwietzer, oh and his administration and the Demorcrats on the state land board, did finally get those coal tracts down at Otter Creek leased out. And for big money too btw. Now on the wolf issue, I totally agree with Livingstone and Zinke, but I will also say this, Schweitzer has opened up a hunting season on wolves, or the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Commission did and they were appointed by Schwietzer. Now the grizzly bear issue, Im not familar with so sorry no comment there until I become more educated on the issue. So in short I would say this the Livingstone and Zinke campaign is a solution looking for a problem. Oh and I should note that for years while I was growing up I heard alot of times that Eastern Montana was ignored by state government, and there has always been a battle between the east and the west. But Im not hearing that as much today, except when Western Montana wants to take the natural resource money out of Eastern Montana especially our school districts. And I can blame both parties for that.

This post is enormously fun, and actually well researched, but ultimately pointless. Livingstone stands no chance of getting the nomination. PPP should be releasing their latest poll of Montana this week, and I’m certain that will bear out my claim.

I cant envision half of all our Montana laws down the drain if this nutcase gets in! First of all O’livinstoned is gonna tear down the government and rebuild it with what??? Gonna get rid of half the laws on the books? Dear Montanans, Let me give you some perspective!

When I was a paralegal and researcher in California, The Oakland law library, is two buildings Large, One a two story, and the other a 4 story building that takes up half a city block. The California laws and regulations Books, just the laws and the states agency laws Books, with no case law added, Took up 1 and half floors on the 12th street Library alone. Remember that building takes up half a block, four story’s high!

Montanas laws and agency regulations fit on a 4 by 7 bookcase!

You dont have too much regulation in this state, in some instances you have to little. Montana also defers to a lot of federal Regulations, instead of having their own. and actually thats a good thing. because a lot of that Federal code for buildings, roads , and bridges is just about right, regulation wise. The bare minimum for human safety.

Meaning no extra or hidden costs! Not enough Law to give big business, a monopoly, meaning any little business guy has a shot to be big too. Not more law then Business can bear. There might be some things we need to tweak, or amend and a few archaic shit laws that can go. But grandfathering laws shouldn’t ever go, with the exception of asbestos building. The laws aren’t the problems here, the state isn’t broken, the GOP is tinkering way too much with something that is working leave it alone!

Most of our problems stem, from the country as a whole, bad ecomony, slow Gas prices throughout the world, and middlemen f*cking with the prices of that oil artificially. Insurance companies taking out a chunk of your savings, Unfair Taxes, all products going up in prices as well, because this country doesn’t make things anymore. It isn’t the states fault, but in order to manipulate the current laws for corporations to come here and pollute more, or rip our pristine wilderness down, the GOP have to make up a story about the state being broke, and our laws being all messed up! It is total BS!

This guy Livingstine is gonna be another Judy Martz, he already sounds like she did in her campaigns…. Flat Careless!

I have to agree with both Rob and Norma here, first off what Ive been seeing out on the road way is alot of Ken Miller signs, and a few Rick Hill signs, Ive never seen an actual Neil Livinstone sign, or a Corey Stapleton sign, or a Bob Fanning sign, but that means little. I think from the way this thing is blowing out its going to be a fight between Ken Miller and Rick Hill, neither of those two excite me. One is a has been, the other is a never was. As far as taking away half the state laws, that is a pipe dream and here is why, we still have stupid laws left over from territorial days, for example if you see a party of more then seven Indians off of a reservation in Montana, it is considered a war party and you can shoot on sight. Now tell me that would never fly in a court of law in todays world, that I can tell you. Also from what I’ve heard there is still a law on the book that says the woman can not be on top of the man in sexual intercourse, how in the hell are you going to enforce that one? Oh and one of my favorite ones it is illegal for women to fish on Sunday’s and single women must be accompanied by either their father, or boyfriend, or brother while fishing, now tell me FWP doesn’t have better things to do. So yes we need some clean up not not a complete re do, and we as a state re wrote our constitution in 1971 and adopted it in 1972, several of the delegates to the constitional convention for Montana are still alive and well, granted they are old and gray, but they are well. No we dont need another constituional convention, we just need to get back to work, and solve real problems, and the GOP is not interested in real problems right now.

Jeebus, Farmboy, I’m freakin’ CROSS-EYED after reading that, dude! I gotta tell ya about the latest invention. It’s called a paragraph! Hell, I ain’t no grammar nazi, but I DO like to come up for air every once’st in awhile! Throw’em in ’bout every eight lines. That’s my rule of thumb. Works for me, and you’ll save me from goin’ cross-eyed!

Ive got some questions about the content of this video. First question, Neil claims he is the only union member in this race, which union is he a member of? Idiots 191. Second he is going to rebuild Montana, really I did not know it needed to be rebuilt. Second didn’t Ryan Zinke when he was in the state senate didn’t he team with Schwietzer to stop coal bed methane development and coal minning in the Flathead? So doesn’t that send a message that we must protect the mountains but hey that prairie out there who gives a crap?

A) CORY STAPLETON and his staff function at a 1st grade math level… Even a cursory examination of Corey Stapleton’s February campaign finance report makes it obvious that his campaign is circumventing Montana’s rules in campaign contributions. Compared to other candidates, he’s been raising an enormous amount of money from “pass the hat” donations at political events across the state, far more than any other candidate—and enough to make the amounts quite suspect.

B) KEN “NOT-SO-HONEST-ABE” MILLER and his remaining staff function at a 1st grade math level as well! Ken Miller’s chief fundraiser Kelly Bishop is accusing the candidate of failing to disclose campaign expenditures and accepting anonymous, illegal campaign donations: Bishop, who was hired in January and was still listed on Miller’s campaign website Monday afternoon, said in an interview she had firsthand knowledge of Miller accepting campaign donations that did not appear on campaign finance reports as required by state law.

“At one point it was close to $14,000 that I accounted for that was missing off one of the campaign finance reports,” Bishop said.

It’s never a great sign when a former campaign worker accuses a candidate of breaking the law, but it’s especially troubling when the person was in charge of fundraising!!!!!

C) RICK HILL…this simply speaks for itself! Congressman Hill, during his tenure in the nation’s capital, was rated by George magazine as the “second most-difficult boss” in all of congress. [Source: The Associated Press, “Magazine Finds Hill Second Most Difficult Boss in Congress,” June 19, 1999.]

D) NEIL LIVINGSTONE…this simply speaks for itself as well! I mean I could never vote for a man that dresses nice, let alone eats Chilean Sea Bass! I mean the fact that this guy hired a former reporter from Fox News, Andrew Stack, to make a mini documentary is almost inconceivable!! What is even more inconceivable is the fact that the many many many people actually do support him in Butte, MT!! I mean the fact that the owner of the M&M Cigar Shop, Sam Jankovich, is a Livingstone supporter and even has his signs and banners hanging in the bar is a complete understatement of how disliked Livingstone is in Butte.

Oh ya I forgot about something, I have actually seen videos where Ken “Not-So-Honest-Abe” Miller and his overweight running mate portray themselves as a 6-PACK of BEER! I have heard many many right-wingers talking about how this has offended the church-goers, whom have had underage kids wondering if drinking beer was an OK since Ken “Not-So-Honest-Abe” Miller and his overweight running mate want to be know as a 6-PACK of BEER!

Whooaa! Has anybody seen the TV ad that Ken Miller’s people are running about Rick Hill? If not, I’m sure Cowgirl will love it. It says that Rick Hill was a spousal abuser and a philanderer. Just got an email from MCF with the video. Here it is:

It seems Miller would like us all to forget his current investigation by the Commissioner of Political Practices. It sure looks to me like he is attempting to light Hill’s house on fire so we don’t notice that Ken’s has burned to the ground. Arson even? BTW, nice job eastern patsy…you obviously did what you were told!

Um, I had a nice piece of Chilean Sea Bass at Showthyme Restauarant in Bigfork last Saturday night. It’s a wonderful fine dining establishment right here in Montanny, next door to the Bigfork Summer Playhouse, home of some of the best summer-stock theater in the country. I must not have gotten the memo that dyed-in-the-wool Montanans such as myself are too provincial to know about imported seafood from oceans. Personally, I prefer a nice Steelhead or Lake Trout on the grill, the “Kobe”-quality beef from Blacktail Mountain Ranch in Lakeside (www.blacktailmountainranch.com), the award-winning sausages and fine smoked meats from Lower Valley Processing in Kalispell, the extraordinary Flathead Lake Cherries, the chocolates from the Parrot in Helena, etc., etc. Montana is blessed with delectables that surpass those found in the highest-end groceries in New York City and I agree with Neil that our home-grown delicacies are appropriately exported nationally and internationally. Promoting Montana’s excellent commodities and expanding the market for our home-grown small businesses–can’t argue with that.

I just wanted to let you know that your beef is absolutely horrible. It is people like you that come to my home state and give it a bad name. Your meaningless “hybrid” gives Montana beef a bad name as well. First and foremost beef was meant to have fat in it and when it doesn’t it tastes like yours and it makes people want to vomit! According to all the locals you are a washed out attorney posing as a rancher, but yet you only own 40 or so acres. By Montana standards that is not even enough acreage for a petting zoo, which I hope you don’t start because according to the locals all your cows die anyway! Your website says you have a ranch and that in itself is quite a parody! I would be careful and not offer any “family tours” of your petting zoo to “show how you raise and produce cattle” because most people are horrified at the sight of dead livestock! Bottom-line…please go back to where you came from and STOP giving Montana beef a bad name! You obviously don’t know what you are doing and everyone is basically laughing at you!

Pick your targets carefully, boys! bwwhahahahahahahaa! I don’t plan to let the fascists pull off another coup a la Kennedy! I was a kid then. But now, I’ll get some instant justice! How ’bout you?

I have been saying to anyone who would listen for a long, looong time now, that the same bastards who pulled every coup in Latin America have the exact same plan for OUR country! And if they try, take’em out! Time to order some take out!

I guess the Guy who wrote that doesn’t understand that Pakistan has always been a Muslim country??????

That Bush not Obama promised the Afghans we would leave by 2014?

That everything spewing from John L. Perry Lunatic mind was caused by the Bush Administration,and Wall street crashed when Bush was in office September 2008……… two months before the presidential election???

WTF Tea Party, are you really this off the wall and in need of Pharma intervention, and a padded room????????? t(-_-t)

There has been no crash on Wall Street since 1987. A crash is usually defined as a 20-percent or greater market drop in a day, not in a month or a year.

What you are referring to is the progressive (no pun intended) selloff of stocks that began in 2008 after the Democrats gained control of the Congress in 2007. The selloff accelerated as 2008 went on, and when it became apparent that Obama was going to win the election, the selloff went into high gear.

The Smart Money always pulls the plug on the market when the Democrats are in power. That is why your pension plan or 401(k) took such a hit, and why your life sucks so much today.

There has been no sunset in Colorado since 1987 either. That’s because we define sunset as the sun disappearing in the west and not reappearing for 20 hours. That’s our definition, so don’t argue.

You’re wrong-headed, by the way, to attribute recent phenomena to a much longer-term problem, the rise of neoclassical economics and its application to fiscal policy since the 1970’s. We are seeing more frequent and more severe crises as a result, 1987 being but the first, 2008 the most recent. I don’t know the future, but I have no confidence in Bernanke or any of the right wing schools to guide us through this. Simply put, they don’t know nuthin’.

I meant to say that you are wrong to attribute recent phenomena to partisan politics, as you could not, given ten years and an unlimited supply of computers, make a evidence-based case. You’re just grab-bagging.

It’s like saying that Obama or the Democrats are responsible for ocean tides. But they are bought into the brand of economics that has caused all our many problems, so should not be let off the hook – that is, when he took office, Obama did not change anything, and the Democratic Congress was just as worthless.

Economists know very little about how economies work … Economists cannot explain the past or present nor predict the future,

That was you, correct? Now, it’s pretty much a given that economists are the purveyors of the many “brand of economics”. Yet you can define what “brand of economics that has caused all our problems”. Are you then an economist? Of course you aren’t. Yet still, like Bill O’Lielly, you shout at Norma that “The tides go in, the tides go out. YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN THAT!”.

Well, see, by observation, we really can. You talk all kinds of smack about ‘how things work in the real world’, and then ignore that. Obama did change some things and the economy has improved. “Sellen” wailed about the market and how Democrats are always bad for it, and yet the market is substantially improved. The Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress protected American manufacturing jobs and the job situation is also improving, just slower than a ‘free thinker’ such as yourself would admit as a net good. For six years, Democrats in Congress have attempted improve the federal revenue stream, only to be thwarted in the Senate by Republicans. You can make up all kinds of rationalizations about how that, too, is the Democrat’s fault. But it looks ever more as if all you’re doing is promoting a Republican majority.

So, clearly, you’re wrong about nothing changing or who is to blame. In the absence of evidence which you never ever present, why on Earth would anyone trust the opinion of an amateur economist such as yourself, Tokarski?

The particular brand of economics I refer to is called “neoclassical”. It’s Austrian cousin is a bit more in tune. It proposes such insanity as saying that debt does not matter, that regulation is a drain on the economy, taxes are counterproductive and inhibit growth, and that free markets generally work well when left alone, that there is such a thing as a demand curve, that pumping money to the banks is stimulative.

None of that is true. However, in promoting such policies one thing is predictable – that wealth will more and more be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. With that wealth concentration comes concentrated political power.So it should be no surprise that this is the brand of economics taught in our better schools, Chicago. Cui bono?

That is the problem we face now – concentrated wealth controls both parties and most of the Democrats that you think (by osmosis?) are going to solve our problems even as they accept bribes from private concentrated wealth.

Now I don’t know what the hell you wrote above, as per usual you got all messed up in your thinking by using too many words. The more you write, the less sense you make, kind of a learning disabilitymor something, but you sure can’t spell anything out with clarity. But I’ve laid it out for you. If you really think that the elected personnel are running the economy and are responsible for the current reinflation of the bubble, you are only partially right. Obama brought in the crooks who caused the housing crisis to manage the aftermath. Yeah, that’ll work.

But the idea that the economic events in the short term are under political control is ludicrous. Long term, more so, but short term, forget it.

Thanks Rob, But it is Obvious he didn’t get the message! I notice the Guy whenever he gets stuck with having to explain the truth, always goes off continent with his answer! Neo-classical My Ass!!!

Income inequality has grown over the last 30 years or more driven by three dynamics: rising inequality of labor income (wages and compensation), rising inequality of capital income, and an increasing share of income going to capital income rather than labor income.

As a consequence, examining market-based incomes one finds that “the top 1 percent of households have secured a very large share of all of the gains!

He can call it what he wants but the fact is, If we were truly following a real Plan of economics beside the 1%’s Me Me Me one, the country would be far better off. here is one name proposed for that plan it is called “Greed!”

This new economy style of productivity doesn’t even have a name yet since the patterns seem to have changes since 2000. I would Like to give it a title, calling it the “Lost Decade” theory of economics!

Recent history, especially since 2000, has shown that wages and compensation for the typical worker and income growth for the typical family have lagged tremendously behind the nation’s fast productivity growth. a good explanation of this new economy of the U.S. comes from bits and pieces written of EPI’s upcoming The State of Working America, 12th Edition (Mishel, Bivens, Gould, and Shierholz 2012) to document and explain these trends, particularly those of recent years.

Its beginning to look more and more like the top 1% would rather pocket the money, then invest it in its workers now, and that is the sad truth! I think Government does need to step in and make companies pay more in taxes, because they just aren’t interested in giving up Chilean Sea Bass anytime soon, and investing in people in this country anymore!

Sorry guys if I don’t catch the fish I don’t generally wont eat it. Strictly speaking, I’ll stick with my trout! Damn we do have of the finest eating trout in the world!

But if I am vacationing in California its Grunion, and all day boating surprises out of San Diego, Monterrey or San Francisco! Thats far more fun! East coast Lobster and crab! Yeah, they got a boat for that too! You can eat at expensive places, and spend as much in an hour, as you do with a day of boating snacks and Good beer, and new friends!

Here’s the thing about this whole “web video” craze. It a giant waste of money. Stupid candidates spend big bucks getting these made and they they are only seen by a couple hundred people who are already voting for them. A much smarter candidate will spend this money on mail, which will actually reach voters that haven’t heard of her or him yet. Nobody watches these long videos anyway. Terrible. Any candidate that does this will get no donation from me. V